Of all of history’s enemies, e.g., fire, storms, erosion, pollution, or growth; the biggest enemy of all is Time. As Time passes we are bound to lose track of what makes up our history… people, events, structures, records, stories, etc. This blog proposes to share topics of interest that were not available at the time of publishing our book, "Bayou Pigeon, LA - Spirit of the Atchafalaya."

Friday, February 17, 2017

Even though Bayou Pigeon is in Iberville parish, most everyone knows the Cajun residents of Bayou Pigeon came here from Pierre Part, La. Thus Bayou Pigeon has more in common with Pierre Part than with any other community in our home Iberville Parish.Since most people know the Cajuns are descendants of Acadians from Nova Scotia, and the story of the 'Grand Derangement'. But that does not answer the questions of the inquiring mind, How did the Cajuns get to Pierre Part?The rest of the story:The very first Acadians to arrive in the Louisiana territory consisted of 21 people in 4 families. They came in 1763, and settled on the west bank of the Mississippi in "the area of the vacant lands between [Nicolas] Verret's Plantation and [Jacques] Jacquelin's Cow Ranch," near the present site of Lagan, St. James Parish.. Here they created a little Nouvelle-Acadie of their own called The First Acadian Coast. This settlement preceded the Bayou Teche Cajun settlement by at least one year.More Acadians arrived in the immediate area in 1765 /1766, and settled above the First Acadian Coast at present day Donaldsonville, on Bayou Lafourche, in Ascension Parish.. This was called the "Second Acadian Coast". A third Acadian coast was “The Maryland Acadians,” who settled at St.. Gabriel, Iberville Parish.. The Acadian Coasts are not "coasts" as one would think of the term today as land along the seashore of an ocean. A coast by definition is "the land near the shore“ but in this case, the shore is the land along the Mississippi River.. During the 18th and 19th centuries the term coast was used to describe the distinct settlements situated just above New Orleans along the Mississippi River's edge.. There are naturally two coasts. The left coast or left bank, was the land located on your left-hand side if traveling down river, the east bank, and the right coast or right bank was the land located on your right-hand side if traveling down river , the west bank. “ The Coasts,” in this context are named for the first settlers to establish along their shores.

These new settlers were called 'Les petits habitants' French for Small Farmers.

Explanatory note: A pieux is a board. The earliest were hand rived were of cypress. The Cajuns brought with them to Louisiana many skills, incluing all aspects of farming. Carpentry was one of them, fencing for the farm was important. The cajuns had two kinds of pieux fences, and both are depicted in the sketch. One was of vertical boards, and it could be a small picket fence around the house, are a very tall one around a vegetable garden (to keep out chickens). The other pieux fence had pieux boards driven into the ground, and holes were dug into them (often with a special froe). Then horizontal pieux were placed in the holes, as seen around the field near the house. After the new USA completed the Louisiana Purchase, new American immigrants, began to move into the area. These Americans had money to spend on land, and they began to push / buy out the small and poor Acadian farmers, “Les petits habitants" from the good front lands along the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche. The Bayou Lafourche Acadians did not to resist these new immigrants too much, the Americans were willing to pay a good price to the Acadians for their small farms and they distrusted the new Anglo goverment. After Grand derangment they distrusted any goverment! Instead of taking the money and moving or looking for better ground to the north or to the Bayou Teche area , the Lafourche Basin Acadians would fall back closer to the east edge of the Atchafalaya Swamp,

This was documentd by Pitot,
James (Pacques-françois), Spanish CabildoWard Commissioner
of New Orleans; 1802 -1804. He wrote a critique of Spanish
rule of
Louisiana colony - 1796 to 1802 for the French who had taken over from the Spanish. This was before the Louisiana Purchase He observed that
La-fourche
Parish was alreadying enjoying an increased rate of growth. His description of the region reveals the
changing complexion of Acadian coast
settlement along Bayou Lafourche ,as English
speaking planters began to move into the region the 'Les petits
habitants' withdrew into the further reaches of the swamps”. The Les petits habitants recognized there was some opportunity for agriculture in the Pierre Part area, ie., along the narrow strips of ridge lands along the Bayous.

The
Acadian “les petitshabitants”displaced
by the plantation system followed two migratory patterns; (

The
route to Pierre Part;

At the Village of Port
Barrow on
the banks of Bayou Lafourche slightly below Donalsonville, there was
a cordelle road / path, it was either along a bayou or small slough , likely to the source of Grand
Bayou, which led to Lake Verret.

By 1815 a small settlement of families, existed
on the west banks of Lake Verret, where Bayou Pierre Part flows into the Lake
Verret.
These first
settlements were placed on the *brules,surrounded by swamp. Brules’ were high natural ridge cleared and burned… ‘brules” French ‘for burnt’. Between 1780 and 1803 the Attakapas Canal (pronounced tuck-a-paw) was completed, ie., a man made canal made by extending a
natural bayou was connected Lake Verret
with Bayou Lafourche. This route also
provided a shorter route to the lower Atchafalaya Basin ( Morgan City and the area of Bayou Teche to the west than Bayou Plaquemine.

Base Map 1863

Pierre Part / Belle River continued to grow because there was some opportunity for commercial agriculture along the narrow strips of ridge lands along lower Grand River.

It was not long however before the vast majority Acadians recognized the vast natural resources that existed in the Atchafalaya River Basin were easier to harvest than eking out a living farming. They turned their livelihood to the swamps. By 1820 they were shifting their living from subsistence farming to fishing, trapping , hunting, moss picking, and logging cypress trees. They came to be called 'petits habitats de marecage', Farmers of the Swamp .

Because of the isolation and ruggedness of the Atchafalaya Swamp this group of Cajuns became semi- isolated from the new Americans and even their cousins living on the levee lands along Bayou Lafourche. They did not intermarry with other ethnic groups, therefore Pierre part, Belle River Lake Verrett communities maintained the traditional French Acadian culture and language much longer than their cousins.

Today, Pierre Part is one of the small pockets of Cajun French speaking communities left in Louisiana.

About Me

Chachie is an avid outdoorsman and sportsman. He is a charter member and the current Chairman of the Board of the Catfish Hunting Club, Inc. of Bayou Pigeon, La., a member of the National Rifle Association and the Boone and Crockett Club of America. He has been hunting and fishing in the Central Atchafalaya Basin since the 1963. He has been involved with the Atchafalaya Basin Landowners and the LW&F in improving the quality of the hunting and fishing in the basin since the early 1970’s. He is a licensed alligator hunter in the State of Louisiana and, he says, a seriously addicted deer hunter.

He is known by many of his Bayou Pigeon life-long friends as the go-to guy about the history of the Atchafalaya Basin. By his professional contacts, he is to referred as “Chachie of the Atchafalaya.”